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I was so excited when I saw the two new arrivals to the Bunny Garden; the first this Spring. They’re a continuation of the ongoing evolution of my hand knit bunny creations that began a little over a year ago. Each bunny is one-of-a-kind & I never know who he or she is until they’re totally finished. I’m always excited to see who emerges from the crossing of two needles and a ball of yarn.

The first arrival this Spring was Olivia. As it turned out, Olivia was just passing through the garden- (she sold immediately,) Assembling her, a little voice in my head said, Hmm~ I wonder how she’d look if I attached her ears more behind her head- kind of like this- and I held them about where I thought they should be… They might look cute that way! I’ve seen bunnies hold their ears like that before- and certainly if she was a lop her ears would be like that… but what if they didn’t look good? Once I sew them on I can’t take them off without ruining the bunny-

Then another little voice sounded in my head~ Why take a chance? Just sew them on top of her head like the others, where you know they’ll look good- Yes, but… Back and forth the two voices went- until I couldn’t stand it anymore. I held the ears up to the back of her head one more time~ took a deep breath and began sewing them- onto the back of her head. Once I’d finished sewing them on, I looked at her and she seemed to have a little grin on her face. She looked back at me~ (I could swear I saw her wink~ ) with a grin that said, ” Yes!! I’m so cute now!”

That’s an example of the way my bunnies are constantly changing & evolving. I hadn’t planned on putting Olivia’s ears low on her head when I began to knit her. Each bunny is determined more by the shape of their head than anything else.

For some reason I don’t understand, every time I knit a new bunny their head shape ends up being different than any of the others that I’ve knit- even though I do the same things when knitting them. Once I see the head shape that I’m going to be working with, ideas start coming to mind, guiding me on how to best sculpt the head and stitch the facial features; my goal being to create a bunny that embodies the unique irresistible nature of live bunnies that I’ve known and loved so much over the years.

Finished just yesterday, Rebecca is the second of the new Spring bunnies to the garden this year. You can see the difference in head shapes, between Olivia’s, pictured above, and Rebecca’s, (to the left.) Rebecca’s head has a shorter, rounder shape than Olivia’s did. With Rebecca, I again experimented with the placement of her ears. I also tried to fill her little cheeks out a bit to go with her more rounded head shape, the way real bunny’s cheeks appear. I once had a Netherlands Dwarf bunny that Rebecca’s more compact, rounded face shape reminds me of. Soon I’ll be ready to begin another bunny. I’m curious to see what my next attempt with the needles is going to produce.
I wonder~ could this be the way a “real” bunny mom feels? Perhaps I’ve discovered the reason bunnies have such large families; they simply can’t wait to see who’s coming next-?

After what seemed more like forever than the 30 minutes it actually was, we arrived at the warehouse-like cargo site of Delta airlines. It appeared deserted. There was one man standing out in front looking for us. It seems we were given the wrong arrival time and poor Pippin had been waiting in his little crate for a half hour already. He was the last of the cargo to be picked up. I ran over to the crate that held him to look inside~ My heart absolutely melted seeing him sitting there, calmly looking back at me, probably thinking, Who is she, and where am I, I want to go home! I wanted so much to hold him and hug him tight and tell him he was going to be fine.

I loaded Pippin in his crate into the back seat of the car then climbed in next to him and opened the door to his crate so he could come out. Curious, he’d take a few steps towards the front of the crate, but then quickly retreat. I put a little of his kibble in my hand and offered it to him. That got him to come forward again but only for a few secs and then he backed up. It took a little while before I was able to coax him out of his crate, but finally he came out.

In an instant I had the softest, sweetest, little furball in my lap! I held him tight in a hug, he wrapped his front legs around my neck and we rode that way all the way home. The rest of the trip home is a blur. I was aware only of the softness of his thick coat, the warmth of his hug, and the beat of his heart against my chest; soothing the dark emptiness left by the loss of Pascal- Pippin too, had losses-

Feeling his little arms wrapped around my neck I knew everything was going to be fine- We’d found each other~

(This is an introduction to an ongoing series of posts about adventures with my new puppy, Pippin, that I plan to include in my blog whenever possible.)

If you’ve read my blog before you may remember that I often wrote about the antics and quirks of my funny beloved best companion; my Bedlington terrier, Pascal. Pascal came to me when he was 4 1/2 months old and I was fortunate to have him with me for fourteen and a half years! Though that’s considered a nice long life for a dog, compared to a human life it’s way too short! Pascal died on November 7,2013. On November 13, after spending a very sad week desperately searching for a Bedlington pup, I was at the cargo drop-off station of the Oakland airport to pick-up my new puppy! I was so excited anticipating seeing him for the first time that I felt like I was about to burst with impatience. Fortunately, my parents offered to drive me there. The way I was feeling I think had I been driving I never would have made it~ or if I did, it would be with a streamer of traffic violations waving like a flag from the antennae of my car. (to be cont.)

It’s been awhile since my last post, but in my last post I wrote about the goings on in my Bunny Garden. I have continued making bunnies for the garden and over the past several months, little lambs have come to join them. The little guy pictured here is Wooliam. He is the result of my own design and experimentation with combining knitting and embroidery. Wooliam’s head consists of two days of embroidering individual layers of French knots over his knit head- a painstaking job, but one with very pleasing results. I wanted to make a knit lamb that had the gentle warmth and loveable quality that’s commonly associated with lambs.~ More on the happenings in the bunny garden in my next post!

Aha! I managed to convince a few of the bunnies to hold still long enough for me to snap their picture! It’s been so long since I’ve written that I thought today I would try to update my blog. I was surprised to find that even though it’s been so long since I’ve last posted, I’m still working on the same thing; knitting bunnies!

When I last wrote, I had just finished knitting the first few that I’d ever knit. To date, I’ve knit 16 ~ and just started on my 17th bunny! They are all one-of-a-kind and as you may be able to tell from the photos I’ll post; each has his/her own very distinct personality. I love knitting them and get so excited as I get close to completing one, because even I don’t know who they are or what personalities they have, until they’re totally finished. More than once, I’ve stayed up all night working because I was close to completion and couldn’t wait until morning to find out who it was.

The bunnies, as I’m sure you’ll notice if you look at pictures of the first ones I made, (see previous post,) have been gradually evolving. In creating them, my desire is to capture what I find most dear about rabbits and try to convey that essence in the bunny that I’m making. It’s definitely a challenge! The one thing that seems to really define the bunny, and make one bunny different from another, is it’s head shape and the size and shape of it’s facial features. When I say that they have evolved from the first few that I made, I’m referring to things about their heads and faces. With each bunny that I make now, I’m sculpting their heads to make them closer to the shape of a real bunny. I have no pattern telling me how to do this it’s done purely by how I perceive it to be. The same is true with stitching the facial features: it’s a process mostly of trial and error, based purely on my perception at the moment~ about as far from an exact science as it could be and that’s what makes it so difficult to do.

As I’m creating a bunny, I can feel it’s story starting to develop in the back of my mind. At that point, I just “feel” it. I don’t really “know” it yet. It usually waits until I begin writing a listing for it to be revealed. I have enjoyed so much writing the beginnings of each of their stories in listings, that I have a new idea in mind that will involve each bunny being accompanied by a little book that will have an expanded version of that particular bunny’s story in it, illustrated by photos similar to the ones I’ve posted in their listings. The small book and the bunny will be sold together as a set and will, of course, be one of a kind. This is still in the idea stage, but I’m very excited about it and hope to be able to begin the project within the next few months! Below are a few photos of my most recent bunny, finished 3/30/13, and just listed. I am going to include the beginning of her story as I have it listed and that will give you an idea of the kind of thing I have in mind to do. If my idea were now in the finished stage, what you would see in my shops is the bunny and an accompanying little book with an expanded version of her story, illustrated with photos of her~something similar to this abbreviated version about Peony~
Everywhere I look I see Spring! If Spring were a flavor, it would most definitely be sweet. Think about it. ~ The spring trees are abloom in cotton candy shades of pink and white that hug their branches like puffs of spun sugar. The spring sky is unpredictable; one minute sun, the next- showers. The clouds pulling sun minutes into shower minutes are the puffy billowy kind; marshmallow clouds. Sweet again! Spring is also about babies~ and all babies are sweet. Spring simply is~ Sweet!
Spring has definitely come to the bunny garden! Aahh~ take a deep breath. What do you get? Sweet! The air is intoxicatingly sweet with the scent of Freesia. Looking out over the garden I see bunnies hopping every which way, heels so high in the air it seems they’d pull a bunny right over in a back flip! Like Spring, bunnies are sweet and Spring is bringing new bunnies to the garden.Looking out over the garden I can tell the bunnies are extra excited. They’ve discovered the crop of new spring greens, always the sweetest of the year. A pretty, large, pink flower suddenly hopped into the air with the bunnies. Wait! A hopping flower?? I looked closely before realizing that what I’d been staring at and thinking was a newly opened flower, wasn’t a flower at all, it was a new bunny!!! This little one kicked her heels higher into the air than the other bunnies & because she happened to be in front of a tree, she looked just like one of the tree’s pink blossoms. No question about her name. This was Peony, the sweetest little flower bunny; Sweet as Spring, Sweet as a marshmallow cloud, Sweet as the flower-scented air- Sweet—– as a bunny! Peony is the newest bunny in the garden, and Peony is a genuine baby bunny, Springtime Sweet as Sweet can be!!

Bunnies, bunnies and more bunnies!! Taking a little break from making handsmocked & embroidered dresses, I’ve spent the past few months knitting; one of my favorite things of all, to do. I first learned to knit when I was 12; my teacher was my 13-yr.-old friend who was very gifted & knew how to do more than most adults did. I think of her with gratitude every time I pick up my knitting needles. I never would have imagined when I first held a pair of needles in my hands that knitting would become the much-loved activity in my life that it very quickly became. I’ve truly enjoyed the past two months that I’ve devoted to knitting!

I started a few months ago knitting a bunny from a Debi Birkin pattern that I found in an Etsy shop and fell in love with. This was the first time in all of the years that I’ve spent knitting, that I knit a bunny doll. I loved doing it! I loved knitting the little bunny so much that I had to knit another right away. To date I have knit several bunnies, each one different. It’s always a wonderful surprise to see the unique personality that emerges with each new bunny. After knitting the first bunny I started experimenting, making changes to the pattern; molding it to get the “look” that I’m after.

I have always loved bunnies. Over the span of several years, I had 4 house bunnies; all very sweet and very special. I loved to study their faces. There is a special & unique sweetness that even the mischievous ones had. It is that special “sweet” look, so unique to bunnies, that I’m trying to capture in the faces of the bunnies that I knit.

The bunnies aren’t at all easy to make, in fact I find them more difficult than any sweater I’ve made. It’s not the knitting itself that’s difficult, it’s the assembly; particularly the heads & faces. To capture the bunny look that I want, requires much more than knitting an oval, bunny-shaped head. I start with that knit shape, but then I need to put a lot of filling into it so that it’s very firmly stuffed so that I can squeeze the face to make indents where the eyes belong and make it pouffe-out in the cheeks and over the mouth. Once I squeeze an area to be the way I want it, I have to stitch through the head from one side to the other; back & forth, to hold the shape permanently. Sculpting the face in this manner is a slow, difficult process, but one that I love doing, as this is where the bunny is formed as an individual. This is where its personality emerges. Once the head and face are shaped the way I want them to be, I hand stitch with embroidery floss, the eyes, nose & mouth. Work on just the head/face alone, is very intense and takes several hours. This is the part that I find the most difficult in making the bunny~ but it is also the most fulfilling.

Assembling the rest of the bunny is easier than shaping the head & stitching the face, but it too is difficult. (The details are too long for this post, but perhaps in a follow-up post I’ll describe what that involves.)

Once I’ve created a bunny, it’s time to knit something for them to wear. Usually I haven’t an idea what it will be until I’ve created them & seen what their personality is. For the first few bunnies, I knit sweaters, but as I knit more bunnies I felt like it would be fun to knit whole outfits for some of them, so my more recent bunnies are dressed in coordinating outfits; sweaters & pants or sweaters & a skirt- or overalls. I like to hand embroider a little flower~ or vegetable, on their clothes, it’s sort of become my signature. I will definitely continue with bunny-making in the future, as they’ve become one of my very favorite things to knit. I also knit lamb dolls and have a few patterns of some new animals I’d like to try; an elephant, a mouse, and a puppy, so keep checking back and you may see these in my shop soon.

In addition to my animal menagerie, I’ve knit a few baby poncho & pants outfits that I enjoyed knitting and I just started a new outfit, so it should be in my shop, in about a week. And THAT’S what I’ve been up to!!!

August has started off to be horribly hot. I’m really hoping that this isn’t an indication of the remainder of the month. I’m trying to keep in mind that Fall, my favorite season of the year, is just around the corner~ Trying to knit on a hot day can be a challenge. I find if I imagine Fall outside, with it’s wonderful crisp, refreshing air and brilliantly colored leaves that ride a breeze with the grace of a surfer riding a huge rolling wave, I can almost forget about the 100` plus temperatures outside. Almost!

It’s hard to believe it’s summer already. I feel as if I’ve just taken a giant leap into June from January, 2012. The past several months have been very busy, presenting surprises, not all of them welcome- but also, lots of exciting and challenging projects for me to try. You may have noticed my website was down for a while~ that’s because it got hacked. A lot of work on my son’s part, set me up with a new website. Unfortunately, I’m having problems uploading my photos onto the site. A listing with no photos, doesn’t work- but my items, (currently 96 products,) can always be found here, at my Etsy shop. Please come and take a look and as soon as I’m able to get my website working smoothly, I’ll let you know with a new blog post. I’m hopeful it will be soon!

I’m very excited about the recent completion of one of my newest projects, a hand smocked, hand embroidered decorative throw pillow. This is something I’ve wanted to try making for a few years now- you may even remember me mentioning it, many, many blogs ago. It took a long time to summon the courage to give it a try, but I finally decided to jump-in and tackle it. I found it extremely challenging, taking weeks to make since it’s almost entirely done by hand. It’s one-of-a-kind, and I think you’ll agree, definitely unique. I’m very pleased with the results. Here is a picture, and other views can be found in my Etsy shop~

Most recently, I’ve been spending all of my time knitting. I just finished knitting a baby blanket for my nephew’s soon-expected, baby boy. I created this blanket without a pattern, designing it as I knit. It was a lot of fun to make! Here are a few pictures of the finished blanket-

I learned to knit when I was 12 from a good friend whom, it seemed, could do everything. She was 13! Little did I realize then, how invaluable her teachings would become. I have now been knitting for most of my life and it’s absolutely at the top of my list of favorite things to do.

I’m excited to try some new patterns that I got for some knit animals that will join the lambs and bunnies, of which I now have several, in my shop. Currently I’m in the process of completing a little knit outfit, size 12mos., consisting of hand knit long pants & a little hand knit poncho, so that will be the next new item you’ll see in my shop~ as well as in my blog.

The past year’s been kind of a tough one for Pascal, who turns 13 July 4th. Though he no longer hears or sees well, we try to continue our walks as much as possible- weather permitting. Although yesterday’s 102` heat didn’t motivate either of us to even walk out the front door! I try to bring my camera on most of our walks, constantly looking for new pictures for the note cards that I love making. Within the past few months I’ve listed several new sets of cards with lots of fun and beautiful images to see, so if you have a minute, and enjoy looking at pictures, please feel welcome to stop by my etsy shop and have a look~

I hope you are enjoying summer, with it’s beautiful flowers and long, carefree days. I hope to be back soon with news that my website is fully working- and with lots of new listings for you to see~ Until then, Enjoy!

Wouldn’t it be nice to have an extra set of arms & hands? So many times I find myself wishing for that. I could accomplish twice as much as I do now. That would be wonderful!

It’s been a long time since I’ve written~ too long! I feel bad about it. It’s not that I haven’t wanted to write, I’ve just been so busy with my work. Unfortunately I’m not one of those people who are good multi-taskers. There are so many things I’d love to make, but they all require a lot of time. In the interest of trying to get more items made, I decided to concentrate my efforts for a while~ and that’s why I haven’t been here. There is still so much that I want to make, so I can’t commit to a regular writing schedule , as I hope to be able to do someday, but I intend to pop in more frequently and let you see some of the things I’ve been working on.

I recently finished a custom order Christmas dress for a customer that was probably the most difficult order I’ve ever worked on. It was a real challenge, but I was determined to do it. I worked on this dress for a month, twice even staying up all night working because I had to see what it looked like~ and if I’d captured the scene pictured in my head. In spite of the difficulty I have to say that I really enjoyed the challenge this dress presented. Creating it helped me learn a lot about perspective & how to fit a lot into a small space~

The order was for a Christmas dress in green fabric, smocked & with an embroidered scene that included a Christmas tree with colored lights, a little girl, a basset hound & a chocolate lab. Once the sides are smocked there is only about a 3 1/2″ x 3″ space left in the center to compose a scene. That’s really not much room at all. Most of my scenes usually have 1 or 2 major figures in them. That is usually what fits the most comfortably. This request was for twice as many figures as I usually have, so the major problem it presented was how to fit everything in and still have it look nice- and the figures be identifiable. When I thought about the scene, what appeared was an outdoor picture. When it came to actually embroidering the scene I pictured, I realized quickly that I was also going to have difficulty with the snow- and how to show that some of the figures were in front while others were further back. These were the two major problems that kept me up all night~ and taught me a lot. I have never been so totally engrossed in a dress as I was with this one, and I’m happy to say that I was pleased with the results~ (the scene pictured in the upper left corner.) If you look closely you will see that the string of tree lights begins in the little girl’s hands & extends down to the basset hound at her side. The basset hound holds a section in his mouth while the chocolate lab, having wound the lights around the branches a few times, is standing behind the tree with his end of the lights held in his mouth~ and so the title, “Three to Light the Tree.”

Just before beginning work on the order for the Christmas dress I made a dress for my shop that is my personal favorite. When shopping for fabrics, I like to buy cuts of whatever I see that I think would make a nice dress- without having any particular dress in mind. I bring them home, wash them & put them away until I’m ready to begin a new dress. That way I build an adequate supply of fabrics so that when I’m ready to start a dress, I can look at them & choose whatever I’m in the mood to work on. The fabric for this dress is fabric that I’ve had longer than any of my other fabrics. Every time I went to choose fabric for a new dress I’d pass this one over~ it just never seemed to “grab” me~ until recently. I think I even surprised myself when I opened the cupboard where I keep my fabrics, spotted this and said, “Yes!” I never would have guessed that it would turn out to be my very favorite dress, but that’s exactly what happened. Once I saw the fabric I knew exactly how I wanted the dress to look. It’s always a bit scary to me to combine fabrics as I’ve done here, with the collar & sleeves in white and the body of the dress in a small print, giving the dress a “jumper & blouse” look. It’s difficult to visualize which fabrics will look good in that style & which won’t. It’s definitely not fit for every print. This is only the second time that I’ve tried embroidering on the “puff” part of each sleeve, but I really like the way it ties the print of the fabric together with the white sleeves, although it’s not an easy thing to do. In fact it’s very difficult to embroider from inside the small area that is available in the sleeve of a baby dress, but I think it’s worth the effort and contributes to creating a dress that’s both unique and very special.

These are just a few of the things that have kept me busy in recent months. I’ve also been knitting, as I’m trying to build a supply of knit items for my shops as well, but more on that in my next post. I’m working on a new dress right now and I’m close to being finished embroidering the scene. I’m looking forward to getting to the part where the dress gets sewn together. I’m sorry to say that my sewing machine which has served me so well over the past 25 yrs. has finally said, “enough!” It’s replacement is sitting, still in it’s box, waiting for me to reach the stage where it will be needed. I’m anxious to see how it will work. Hopefully I’ll love it as much as I’ve loved my old machine and, (whisper-) maybe even a bit more! I’ll let you know how I like it, next time I write~ must return to work now!

I hope you enjoy the beautiful fall weather that’s either just arrived- or will be arriving soon! Fall is my favorite season, so I’m looking forward to cool, beautiful days!

Sunday morning and lots to do~ and lots to procrastinate over! “Come on, Pascal, let’s go for a walk!”

We go for a walk almost every morning. Besides being good exercise, I find it a nice way to get my mind going for the day and get things sorted out, , especially if I’m feeling overwhelmed- which is how I felt this morning. I grabbed my camera and the dog and walked out the door. I’d rather have my camera with me even if I don’t use it, than find myself wishing I had brought it.

It was pretty foggy out, so I didn’t really expect to have much of an opportunity to use it, but as we started up the country road I couldn’t help but notice the interesting and beautiful effect the fog was having, masking everything in an ethereal cloud of dampness and quiet. Wondering if I could capture some of this strange beauty with my camera, I began clicking away, noticing how the branches of the trees that were in close range appeared strong and dark, like out-raised arms holding the fog at bay; in contrast, trees in the distance appeared soft & frail, their outlines blurred in the fog.

I was surprised to see how much of a start the spring grasses have had already. We’ve had a lot of rain so far this winter, but I hadn’t expected to see the grasses getting long so soon. Damp with the morning fog, they looked almost florescent-green against the foggy-gray backdrop of sky. The countryside had acquired an entirely different “attitude,” much as a person’s mood can be affected by weather changes. This “attitude” I was seeing was one of great beauty and I was indeed happy that I ‘d brought my camera!

Leaving the fog outside with the trees, I had a better sense of which project to work on today. I have been so excited about knitting little lambs. I just finished my fourth one and listed it on my website and in my Etsy shop and I’ve started knitting a new lamb~

After my walk, knowing I was going to work on my lamb today, I was excited; couldn’t wait to start; but first I had to get the last of the things I’d been procrastinating over, finished ; writing my blog post!!

~*~ For some reason, the large photos at the beginning of my posts are getting distorted. Until I can resolve the problem, if you click on the photo, you will see it the way it is supposed to be. ~*~

To really get 2011 off to a good start, I think a new Pascal story is in order~ Though he turned eleven in July, (4th,) Pascal hasn’t lost any of his funny quirks; if anything, he’s been busy adding new ones & refining the old ones. Last night was a perfect example of a classic “Pascal” maneuver~

Every night, I prepare his dinner when I prepare mine, so we both eat dinner at the same time. He eats very slowly for a dog, but being a slow-eater myself, he always finishes eating before I do. Every night as soon as he’s finished his dinner, he comes over to where I’m sitting at the table to let me know he’s finished so I can wipe his face- ( I discovered early-on that he really likes to be clean, so if I don’t wipe his face when he’s finished eating, he’ll wipe it himself- by running his chin along the cushion of the couch!) Once I’ve cleaned his face I finish my dinner while he sits on the floor at my feet, patiently waiting for me to finish eating.

Because he’s always been such a “picky” eater I have to have something I can use as a bribe to make sure he eats his dinner, as his medicine is mixed into his food. Once I’ve finished eating, I take both of our plates into the kitchen & if he’s eaten, give him a treat to eat in the other room while I wash dishes. Normally his treat is potato, but occasionally I’ll give him a small dish of sherbet, which is what I usually eat while I do dishes, however he doesn’t usually see me, because he’s in the other room eating his potato.

Last night I brought him his potato & went back to the kitchen to wash dishes. I had taken sherbet out of the freezer but hadn’t put it into a dish yet. Standing at the sink while it filled with water, I had the feeling that I wasn’t alone. I turned around, and guess who was standing there staring at me? “What are you doing?” I asked. I had just given him his potato, he couldn’t possibly have finished it! He continued to stare at me. I thought maybe he needed to go out, so I asked~ No- that wasn’t it. He wouldn’t follow me to the door. He just stood where he was, not moving . I walked into the dining room where I had given him his potato.

At first I didn’t see his dish where I had left it. I walked closer to take a better look. Nope! No dish. No potato! BUT I saw the plastic bag that I lay under his cloth placemat, & his placemat- both were pushed way back under the wooden stand that holds his water dish, carefully arranged in a lump- over the dish with his potato in it! He had done a great job! He hadn’t left one bit of dish sticking out from underneath the placemat & plastic bag! I lifted the placemat. There was the dish with his potato- completely untouched!

While I was in the dining room looking for his dish, Pascal sat totally still in the kitchen. He hadn’t budged- I knew what this trick was about, he’d done it before, but I pretended that I didn’t. With his dish in my hands, I walked up to him & said, ” No potato tonight, huh? What do you want?” He stared at me~ “What, Pascal? Show me what you want! Do you want ice cream?” Suddenly the statue broke it’s silent stance! He stood up, tail wagging in circles excitedly- I showed the carton of ice cream to him and asked, “This? Is this what you want?” I got a chorus of barks & a fanfare of tail wags. Clearly, I was on to something- something good!